HT Michelle Malkin

****Scroll for Updates*****

Nothing new here.

To win this war, we must first know the enemy. RBT has long argued such acts are not crazed acts of desparation by oppressed people. These are rational acts by intelligent people from their own sense of reality based on fanatical cultlike religious teachings.

Unfortunately these teachings do not allow for alternative sources of information, interpretations and reason that would otherwise moderate this behavior. Again its David Koresch and the Branch Davidians (Waco, TX) and Jim Jones and the Kool Aid Bunch all over again except funded by petro dollars e.g. Iran the Shiia extremists and the House of Saud the Suni extremists.

The Pope was actually onto something with his recent theological comments re the Religion of Islam. The Pope's words just went over the heads of the followers of Islam and the MSM.

How come we don't have Baptist suicidal bombers?

RBT

How not to argue about Islam
By Michelle Malkin · September 28, 2006 01:01 PM

This post by Dean Esmay, "calling out Michelle Malkin," is what is known in the business as traffic bait.

So go ahead and click it and give Esmay more of the traffic he wants. I highly recommend you read his post as the classic blogospheric example of how not to argue about Islam.

Or anything else, for that matter.

[...]

Related must-read: Andrew Bostom reports on a Pentagon briefing about suicide bombers that will have the "Islamophobia" crowd in hysterics. It's in the Koran:

With suicide bombings spreading from Iraq to Afghanistan, the Pentagon has tasked intelligence analysts to pinpoint what's driving Muslim after Muslim to do the unthinkable.

Their preliminary finding is politically explosive: it's their "holy book" the Quran after all, according to intelligence briefings obtained by WND.

In public, the U.S. government has made an effort to avoid linking the terrorist threat to Islam and the Quran while dismissing suicide terrorists as crazed heretics who pervert Islamic teachings.

"The terrorists distort the idea of jihad into a call for violence and murder," the White House maintains in its recently released "National Strategy for Combating Terrorism" report.

But internal Pentagon briefings show intelligence analysts have reached a wholly different conclusion after studying Islamic scripture and the backgrounds of suicide terrorists. They've found that most Muslim suicide bombers are in fact students of the Quran who are motivated by its violent commands – making them, as strange as it sounds to the West, "rational actors" on the Islamic stage.

In Islam, it is not how one lives one's life that guarantees spiritual salvation, but how one dies, according to the briefings. There are great advantages to becoming a martyr. Dying while fighting the infidels in the cause of Allah reserves a special place and honor in Paradise. And it earns special favor with Allah.

"Suicide in defense of Islam is permitted, and the Islamic suicide bomber is, in the main, a rational actor," concludes a recent Pentagon briefing paper titled, "Motivations of Muslim Suicide Bombers."[RBT emphasis]

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Update:

HT Atlas of Atlas Shrugs

Atlas echoes with her usual insightful flair:

Suicide for Allah a 'win-win'

"His actions provide a win-win scenario for himself, his family, his faith and his God," the document explains. "The bomber secures salvation and the pleasures of Paradise. He earns a degree of financial security and a place for his family in Paradise. He defends his faith and takes his place in a long line of martyrs to be memorialized as a valorous fighter.

"And finally, because of the manner of his death, he is assured that he will find favor with Allah," the briefing adds. "Against these considerations, the selfless sacrifice by the individual Muslim to destroy Islam's enemies becomes a suitable, feasible and acceptable course of action."

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Update II:

HT AJ at Strata-Sphere

Right On AJ!

As VDH and others say to win a war you must know your enemy, the ideology that drives it, continually engage and adapt to changes on the battlefield, and exploit the enemy's mistakes.

RBT

*****

A Peak Into The Jihadist Mind

I ran across an extremely interesting article by a Muslim, Saud journalist who is obviously well steeped in the forces and thinking behind our Islamo Fascist enemies. And in reading this compelling insight into the Muslim political forces, it is clear we are fighting Islame Fascists. It is interesting because the author is clearly not pro West, he connects to the Jihadists forces in the sense he understands their arguments. But he sees the battle inside Islam and is not siding with the Islamo-Fascists - and is in fact warning against their siren call, because what they want may be deadly.[RBT emphasis]

[...]

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HT Wizbang, Powerline, The Fourthrail

A new AQ audio tape released. Wizbang and Powerline have interesting takes. Sounds like AQ may be getting a little desparate!

RBT

See Wizbang here for multiple updates and links.

Bill Roggio also offers his assessment.

and Powerline's lede:

Ex-terrorists of the best kind

AP reports that al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Hamza al-Muhajir (aka Abu Ayyub al-Masri) has produced an audiotape in which he says that 4,000 foreign insurgents have been killed in Iraq. According to the AP, the Arabic word al-Masri used indicated he was speaking about foreigners who joined the insurgency in Iraq, not coalition troops.

Al-Masri also offered "amnesty" to Iraqis who have cooperated with coalition forces. Such cooperation has been instrumental in making life so difficult for al-Qaeda, where polls show that it to be massively unpopular.

Finally, al-Masri urged explosive experts and nuclear scientists to assist al-Qaeda. Noting that al-Qaeda is in "dire need" of these services, he suggested that U.S. bases would make a fine subject for their "experimentation." Clearly, al-Qaeda needs some sort of "big bang" to create more pressure to induce an exit by the U.S.. Left-wing Dems aren't getting it done.[RBT emphasis]

[...]

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HT Debbie Schlussel

Debbie Schlussel reports on the AP's lastest fakery. While seemingly low on the list of the important news of the day, Debbie rightfully questions what else has the AP got wrong.

RBT

*****

Not so "Itsy Bitsy" Fakery: More AP Fabricated "News"

Tuesday, AP reported that Paul Vance--the man who co-wrote the famous song, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"--was dead. But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of his demise were highly exaggerated. And, in fact, not true at all.

Paul Vance is alive and well. The man who actually died, Paul Van Valkenburgh, was a phony who claimed to have written the song under the name, Paul Vance--a complete lie. Had the AP obituary writer done even the slightest of reporting--ie., investigating--the phony news would not have been reported all over the world.



[...]

Phony news about a guy who wrote a popular bikini song from 46 years ago may seem minor, but it begs these questions about the capabilities of AP to accurately report important, major news stories:

* If AP can't even get right an obituary about a Z-list celeb who wrote a bikini song, what news can the news organization get right?

[...]

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And other comments from the Blogos on the NIE

*****SCROLL FOR UPDATES from the Blogos*****

Scott has just completed his definitive rebuttal to the Phase II Report of the Senate Intel Committee:

Independent
Rebuttal Report Regarding
The SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE
ON
POSTWAR FINDINGS ABOUT IRAQ’S WMD PROGRAMS AND
LINKS TO TERRORISM AND HOW THEY COMPARE WITH
PREWAR ASSESSMENTS

Scott takes the Committee's report point by point and rebutts the findings by information form sources the committee failed to include or consider.

I will make this a separate post with key excerpts later. In the meantime here's a link to Scott's entire report in PDF format:

http://www.scottmalensek.com/PhaseIIrebuttalrpt.pdf

RBT

UPDATE

HT Michelle Malkin

This is extremely important in the coming showdown with Iran. The LL and the MSM aren't covering alternative info sources re the threat of the Mad Mullahs.

The will and support of the American people is crucial to winning the GWOT and wiping it's ideology of hate and Evil from the face of the earth.

Unfortunately the LL and the MSM are too tied up with BSD to see, know or care. This leaves the Am people in the dark.

Michelle is on right on point again re the MSM shilling for the enemy.

RBT

[...]

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Update II:

HT Austin Bay

The new NIE

I expected a White House rebuttal of the NY Times’ latest “intel leak.”

Via the LA Times:

Sunday’s newspaper articles on the National Intelligence Estimate — by the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times — were “not representative of the complete document,” the White House said. That assessment was echoed by National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte, whose office prepared the report.

In a statement e-mailed to reporters Sunday afternoon, Negroponte said “the conclusions of the intelligence community are designed to be comprehensive, and viewing them through the narrow prism of a fraction of judgments distorts the broad framework they create.”

“The Estimate highlights the importance of the outcome in Iraq on the future of global jihadism,” he said. If Iraq develops “a stable political and security environment, the jihadists will be perceived to have failed, and fewer jihadists will leave Iraq determined to carry on the fight elsewhere.”

[...]

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Update III:

HT Powerline

Powerline is now wading in on the the NYT's NIE leak and the MSM's penchant for not reporting the whole truth. Powerline is linking to Spook86 at In From the Cold. RBT sent a comment to Spook86 and was going to link to his assessment but the Powerline guys beat me to it.

RBT

What Else Was In the NIE Report?

In my addendum to this post by Paul, I repeated a point I've made several times before: one of the sinister aspects of leaks of classified information is that they are by nature selective. The leaker has access to lots of material, but he doesn't leak it all: he only leaks what he thinks will best serve his political agenda. The recent leaks of alleged conclusions from the National Intelligence Estimate that was completed last spring is a perfect case in point. Paul and I talked about an article in the Washington Post by a reporter who obviously had not read the report. All she could do was pass on the Democrat leaker's spin. Which, in all likelihood, she was happy to do.

But what does the report really say? In From the Cold, a web site operated by a former intelligence officer with 20 years' experience, has obtained access to portions, at least, of the intelligence agencies' report.

[...]

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Update IV:

HT Michelle Malkin

Says publish the whole NIH.

RBT agrees.

Call the leakers' bluff
By Michelle Malkin · September 26, 2006 07:52 AM

The Wall Street Journal calls on the Bush Administration to declassify the National Intelligence Estimate, which leakers blabbed about to the NYTimes and Washington Post. I think it's a good idea:

[...]

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and also from Michelle,

OMG - President Bush has called the LL and the MSM and raised the ante. The pertinent parts of the NIE that led to the Iraq assessment will be declassified.

The LL is now running for the exits or saying they can't do that.

RBT

The NIE
By Michelle Malkin · September 26, 2006 05:44 PM

Here's the link to the PDF document of the NIE's key judgements at the DNI site. If the server is down, we've got it here.

Some of what you didn't read in the NYTimes:

We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.

The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.

Andy Cochran writes: "I wish they could declassify more or, as I wrote on Sunday night, turn the whole report over to an independent body like the 9/11 Commission and let them do it."

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Update V:

HT Flopping Aces

The NIE And The MSM’s Blatant Bias
Posted by Curt on September 26, 2006 at 21:25
Print This Post |

After reading the NIE myself I can honestly say that the Post and the Times have disgraced themselves once again. Their articles are blatant attempts to bring down the Republican side in this election by any means necessary, including mischaracterizing a classified intelligence document.

Lets take a look at the document shall we?

[...]

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Update VI:

HT Ray Robison

Ray says Scott's rebuttal analysis is brilliant!

RBT

Rebuttal to Phase II intel report

Scott Malensek (PDF) slams the Phase II report on Iraq. Get a cup of coffee, maybe a few MREs before you tackle this one.

[...]

What I have read so far is brilliant, and I reserve that word for few writers, and by few writers I mean me.

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Update VII:

HT The American Thinker

Great piece on the NYT and others have taken a lukewarm intel doc and selectively quoted it to support their own sense of reality.

RBT


How to LIE about the NIE
September 28th, 2006

That most wonderful time of the year has arrived. Oh, the joy of election season! Overpriced, overcooked fundraising dinners; tasteless posters and bumper stickers; sophomoric TV attacks, excruciating debates and, oh yeah – politically motivated leaks to the press. This season’s opening unlawful disclosure – cherry picked classified information from last April’s National Intelligence Estimate. And the bearer of these illicit tidings was, once again, that usual suspect and best friend to all causes liberal—the New York Times.

The Old Grey Lady takes a Leak and Runs with it!

[...]

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Update VIII:

HT Mudville Gazette via Austin Bay

Austin Bay, ". . . And I just followed Instapundit’s link to the Mudville Gazette. Superb post by Greyhawk, providing an “intel review” from 1998."

The Late, Great, '98
Greyhawk

According to the just released National Intelligence Estimate (pdf), US actions in Iraq inspire terrorism. For a second - and earlier - opinion on the topic, here's Osama bin Laden:

The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post...

Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.
<...>
All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims...

On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.

Those comments are from February, 1998 - but they aren't the first (see bin Laden's 1996 Fatwa, for example) or last words from that source on that subject. In fact, in May, 1998 bin Laden answered questions posed to him by some of his followers and ABC news reporter John Miller.

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Update IX:

The NIE story has just about run its course. I'll conclude this series with these two other comments. The bottom line as Villagers with Torches points out, the story is not the NIE was leaked but that we are actually spending a lot of money for something that any junior higher could write that provides little of value to its consumers.

RBT

Kobayashi Maru:

A Bad Way to Draw Conclusions; A Bad Way to Make Forecasts
Fouad Ajami has a must-read op-ed in today's WSJ/OJ pointing out the self-serving double standards being used by Iraq war opponents in yet another attempt to pre-emptively close a case they've cornered themselves into having to make against President Bush. I.e., if they were ever to concede the larger strategic wisdom of toppling Saddam (not to mention their own late-90s hypocrisy on the rationale for and urgency of doing so), all of their rhetoric to date would come to naught. They would have to start re-building a party from scratch. Like a gambler who keeps on doubling down, (or like Mr. Clinton and his increasingly troublesome legacy) the anti-war left has painted itself into a proverbial corner politically. There's no way to get out without making a mess.

[...]

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and Villagers with Torches:

The NIE is a joke, any ONE of us could have written that POS with what we know any day

joe-horses_ass03_copy.jpg
The leak of the NIE to the NYT which then was either so cherry picekd before they saw it, or if they saw the whole thing managed to punk themselves, has now with the 4 page released summary VERBATIM become a piece of evidence that our intellgence services, at least in the product they serve up for the prez, are a farce, a failure, and a bunch of RISK AVERSE incompetents. The fault for this NOW is with George Bush.
[RBT emphasis
[...]

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